OnePlusOne Research and Policy Digest – April 2014

OnePlusOne’s monthly roundup of the key research and policy news to emerge from the field of relationships, including the latest journal articles of interest to family and relationships practitioners and researchers.

A study of 14,000 US children published by Sutton Trust. The study finds that 40% lack strong emotional bonds or “secure attachment”. The researchers found that these children are more likely to face educational and behavioural problems.

The Fatherhood Institute has released a number of short summaries this month on topics including: Paternity leave, Co-parenting and early childhood development; and Supportive fathers, healthy mothers, as well as other topics related to fathers. These summaries provide a concise overview of the evidence relating to the specific areas.

Based on a panel of 45,000 Internet users, this report considers the scale of underage access to adult websites. Findings reveal that 44,000 primary school age children (aged 6 – 11) in the UK visited an adult website from a PC or laptop in December 2013, with the figure rising to 200,000 for children aged 6-15 and 473,000 for those aged 6-17.

A report from NatCen which includes findings about the association of marital status, partnerships and social relationships with subjective wellbeing. It also suggests that children’s happiness is likely to be the same whether they live with two biological parents, a step-parent and biological parent, or in a single parent family.

Family justice reforms, which the Ministry of Justice has termed ‘the largest for a generation’, come into effect on 22 April. This article details the nature of the reforms and the changes which they are aiming to achieve.

Divorce could be taken out of the hands of judges and dealt with by a ‘registrar of births, deaths, marriages and divorces’, the head of the family court has suggested.

In a report from the Law Gazette, Sir James Munby suggested that thought should be given to ‘uncoupling’ the process of divorce from adjudicating on financial relief, in the same way that determining child disputes has been separated from divorce.